Messi983
Senior Member
[MENTION=16942]BBZ8800[/MENTION]:
I agree with your concerns but am still willing to take a bet with Dembele because I believe he's a special player and will develop into what everyone project him to.
When looking historically and trying to compare Dembele's case with the likes of Saviola and Quaresma one thing that they didn't have in their time was Messi on their side. They were all bought as some kind of saviours in bad times (and as bad as some younger fans think it's today it was much worse in Gaspart era as you surely remember). And while Dembele could be similar to those overhyped and then failed talents you mentioned in some aspects and people would have high expectations from him I doubt anyone will expect him to be our best player as long as we have Messi. Unrealistic expectations that most fans had from almost every player Gaspart bought after losing Figo won't happen now. As good and hard to replace as Neymar will be he was far from being our best player. He was/is also still very inconsistent at his age 25 so we are used to that and would have to accept inconsistency from a 20 years old kid even more. No doubt there would be growing pains with Dembele and we'd all need to be patient with him but at least for the next few years nobody would expect him to be our leader and best player.
But when Messi will leave in a few years then Dembele (if he'll develop as we hope) will already be a much better, developed and experienced player who could potentially take over as (one of) future key player(s). I won't say as direct Messi replacement because it's almost impossible we'll ever find one but if we'll have younger players like Dembele (and hopefully some homegrown players like Alena) ready to take over when Messi will eventually decline and retire/leave I think everyone would be more optimistic about our post-Messi era that looks so bad now.
I'm not among the people who believe that Dembele would stay here for 10+ years but he could be here for 6-8 years. And if not and we sell him in 3-5 years, then he'll still be young enough and have very good resale value. Yes, probably not as high as what we'll have to pay for him now but still higher than what we could get for (almost) 30 years old Coutinho. And at that time we could already be thinking about how to replace Coutinho longterm (like we are doing now with Iniesta) along with also trying to figure out how to replace Messi the best we can. One player won't do that so I think our best bet (along with a good coach who would install a good system and I believe it will already be Xavi's time to take over by then) is to bring as much (young) talent as possible to the club and build/develop them around Messi to help us win titles now but at the same time also prepare them to take over when Messi won't be around anymore. Dembele is clearly one of those players IMO.
I also agree with you that we should start looking for and signing more Asensio's and Isco's of this world longterm (especially with prices going crazier and higher every year and after Neymoney this will get even worse) but right now I don't believe we are in a position to do that. We need Neymar replacement and while getting a more proven but still not old player like Hazard for example would make sense those type of players are just unavailable. And I very much prefer to spend 130M on a high upside player than paying 60-80M for aging Di Maria who would again be a short term solution we'd have to replace again in 2-3 years. Possibly with another 100M signing so long term we would spend more on Di Maria + his replacement in 2-3 years than if we just buy Dembele now. We don't know what results would be in both cases on the field but I know which option I and most people are prefering.
As I mentioned in another thread we've changed our philosophy and start to sign younger players last season so I believe that's a step in the right direction. Yes, not all of them have worked out so far and some probably never will but still better than continue to sign players only from Arsenal.
I agree with your concerns but am still willing to take a bet with Dembele because I believe he's a special player and will develop into what everyone project him to.
When looking historically and trying to compare Dembele's case with the likes of Saviola and Quaresma one thing that they didn't have in their time was Messi on their side. They were all bought as some kind of saviours in bad times (and as bad as some younger fans think it's today it was much worse in Gaspart era as you surely remember). And while Dembele could be similar to those overhyped and then failed talents you mentioned in some aspects and people would have high expectations from him I doubt anyone will expect him to be our best player as long as we have Messi. Unrealistic expectations that most fans had from almost every player Gaspart bought after losing Figo won't happen now. As good and hard to replace as Neymar will be he was far from being our best player. He was/is also still very inconsistent at his age 25 so we are used to that and would have to accept inconsistency from a 20 years old kid even more. No doubt there would be growing pains with Dembele and we'd all need to be patient with him but at least for the next few years nobody would expect him to be our leader and best player.
But when Messi will leave in a few years then Dembele (if he'll develop as we hope) will already be a much better, developed and experienced player who could potentially take over as (one of) future key player(s). I won't say as direct Messi replacement because it's almost impossible we'll ever find one but if we'll have younger players like Dembele (and hopefully some homegrown players like Alena) ready to take over when Messi will eventually decline and retire/leave I think everyone would be more optimistic about our post-Messi era that looks so bad now.
I'm not among the people who believe that Dembele would stay here for 10+ years but he could be here for 6-8 years. And if not and we sell him in 3-5 years, then he'll still be young enough and have very good resale value. Yes, probably not as high as what we'll have to pay for him now but still higher than what we could get for (almost) 30 years old Coutinho. And at that time we could already be thinking about how to replace Coutinho longterm (like we are doing now with Iniesta) along with also trying to figure out how to replace Messi the best we can. One player won't do that so I think our best bet (along with a good coach who would install a good system and I believe it will already be Xavi's time to take over by then) is to bring as much (young) talent as possible to the club and build/develop them around Messi to help us win titles now but at the same time also prepare them to take over when Messi won't be around anymore. Dembele is clearly one of those players IMO.
I also agree with you that we should start looking for and signing more Asensio's and Isco's of this world longterm (especially with prices going crazier and higher every year and after Neymoney this will get even worse) but right now I don't believe we are in a position to do that. We need Neymar replacement and while getting a more proven but still not old player like Hazard for example would make sense those type of players are just unavailable. And I very much prefer to spend 130M on a high upside player than paying 60-80M for aging Di Maria who would again be a short term solution we'd have to replace again in 2-3 years. Possibly with another 100M signing so long term we would spend more on Di Maria + his replacement in 2-3 years than if we just buy Dembele now. We don't know what results would be in both cases on the field but I know which option I and most people are prefering.
As I mentioned in another thread we've changed our philosophy and start to sign younger players last season so I believe that's a step in the right direction. Yes, not all of them have worked out so far and some probably never will but still better than continue to sign players only from Arsenal.
